Month: February 2017

Here are 10 things to know: Since taking office in 2015, the NDP government of Premier Notley has undertaken important steps that will almost certainly reduce poverty. These include the implementation of the Alberta Child Benefit (which will lift approximately 19,000 households out of poverty), substantial increases in funding for…Read more

To the greedy, all nature is insufficient. —Seneca. We now live in a world in which eight men are as rich as 3.6 billion people — half of the planet’s inhabitants. In this country, two billionaire businessmen, David Thomson and Galen Weston Sr., hold more wealth than the 11 million…Read more

Prime Minister Trudeau travelled to Europe this week, in part to be there when the European Parliament voted on CETA, the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, Tuesday morning. Just under two-thirds of MEPs voted yes, which means CETA can come into force provisionally as soon as ratifying legislation receives…Read more

Days after the 2015 federal election, a Globe and Mail opinion piece pointed out something many anti-poverty advocates already knew: “Every province and territory but British Columbia has a poverty reduction strategy in place or in development. Many cities and towns do, too. Until now, the big missing piece has…Read more

The Activists: Here’s to Julie, Sandy, Darrah, Bonnie and all the other women who understand that poster board and paint can change lives. To the women who own their own megaphone and know how to use it. To the women who let their anger out to play in public and…Read more

There was a point in 2016 when it seemed the Canada–European Union free trade deal – CETA – was not going to make it. Ironically, Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States has all but assured its approval in Europe. Resistance to CETA, which had been building quietly…Read more

Bruce Campbell wrote yesterday on the Behind the Numbers blog about Trump’s January 30 executive order on deregulation. On the face of it, the idea of eliminating two existing rules affecting business each time a regulator (like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency) wants to introduce one new…Read more

Brad Wall has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea for Saskatchewan; privatizing SaskTel. While the suggestion of privatizing Sasktel has been floated by the government for the past year, the idea took on new life yesterday with the Premier once again musing about the possibility of a referendum…Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump’s January 30 executive action on reducing regulations has been obscured by the uproar in response to his Muslim immigration ban, Mexican border wall and other provocative actions. Canadian concerns around NAFTA renegotiation rarely mentions the impact of Trump’s deregulation agenda. It should, because it could profoundly…Read more